In a statement, partner and lead administrator Tony Lomas said, “To be able to advise ordinary unsecured creditors that we now have a reasonable chance of eventually repaying their claims in full marks a significant milestone for the administrators. This would not have been possible without a huge combined PwC and Lehman effort over the past four-and-a-half years.”

"There is still a lot to do before finalising the wind-down but we do expect to pay a second, significant dividend to creditors in the near future, taking us another step towards this new target," he adds.

In November, a first interim dividend of £7bn was paid to 1,582 unsecured creditors, and Lomas said PwC expects to pay a second “significant” dividend in the near future.

A progress report published last year showed PwC earned £322m in fees from the wind-down process at that stage, thought to be the largest ever earned from any single UK corporate failure.